Certain national park and wilderness areas across the country
are given special protection under the Clean Air Act, including
some of our best known parks such as Grand Canyon, Yosemite,
and Great Smokies.
Today there are 156
protected areas (see map) designated as mandatory federal
"Class I" areas for the purposes of the visibility
protection program.
The Federal agencies responsible for managing the 156 mandatory
federal Class I areas are shown below:
More on "Class I" areas - Under the Clean Air
Act, the "Class I" area designations were given to
158 areas in existence as of August 1977 that met the following
criteria:
- all national parks greater than 6000 acres
- all national wilderness areas and national memorial parks
greater than 5000 acres
- one international park
In 1980, Bradwell Bay, Florida and Rainbow Lake, Wisconsin were
excluded for purposes of visibility protection as federal Class
I areas. Today, 156 national park and wilderness areas remain
as "Class I" visibility protection areas. "Class
I" area designations are also important in evaluating the
impacts of new air pollution sources (e.g. factories) on national
parks and wilderness areas. Special analyses are required when
a proposed new emissions source may impact any of the original
158 Class I areas or new areas designated as Class I by states
and Tribes. To date, five Tribal areas
(see map) have been designated as "Class I" for new
source permitting purposes (PDF
Version, 74 KB), but no additional areas have been added
by states.
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